specification: API Commons Plans
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/Plans
provider: Crawl4AI
providerId: crawl4ai
created: '2026-05-04'
generated: '2026-08-29'
modified: '2026-08-29'
method: searched
source: 'https://gate.crawl4ai.com/ (#pricing section), fetched 2026-08-29'
supersedes: >-
  The 2026-05-04 bulk-sweep scaffold previously in this file, whose Free/
  Professional/Enterprise tiers and placeholder prices were invented. Crawl4AI's
  real ladder is Community / Supporter / Developer / Enterprise.
tags:
  - AI Automation
  - Web Crawling
description: >-
  Crawl4AI publishes pricing openly on the Cloud API landing page. The core
  crawler stays free and Apache-2.0 forever; the hosted API is funded by a $7/mo
  Supporter tier explicitly described as subsidising the free Community tier. Two
  of the four tiers are not yet purchasable.
currency: USD
billing_processor: Stripe
plan_count: 4
plans:
  - id: crawl4ai-community
    name: Community
    type: freemium
    price: '0.00'
    period: forever
    available: true
    description: >-
      "Play, every prototype & hackathon - funded by our supporters & enterprise
      customers. Verify your email to keep your key." A 24-hour key is issued
      instantly with no signup; email verification makes it permanent.
    entries:
      - label: Web search
        name: web_search
        type: quota
        metric: searches
        limit: 5000
        timeFrame: month
        price: '0.00'
      - label: Scrape
        name: scrape
        type: quota
        metric: scrapes
        limit: 1000
        timeFrame: month
        price: '0.00'
    elements:
      - name: Public documentation
      - name: llms.txt
      - name: Hosted MCP server
      - name: Discord community support
  - id: crawl4ai-supporter
    name: Supporter
    type: paid
    price: '7.00'
    list_price: '10.00'
    period: month
    available: true
    description: >-
      "More of everything - 30k searches, 5k scrapes, big extract budget - for less
      than a coffee. Fund the free tier, get the caps." Listed at $10 with a $7
      promotional price on the page as fetched.
    entries:
      - label: Web search
        name: web_search
        type: quota
        metric: searches
        limit: 30000
        timeFrame: month
        price: '7.00'
      - label: Scrape
        name: scrape
        type: quota
        metric: scrapes
        limit: 5000
        timeFrame: month
        price: '7.00'
      - label: Extract budget
        name: extract
        type: quota
        metric: llm_extractions
        limit: null
        timeFrame: month
        note: '"big extract budget" — no number published.'
  - id: crawl4ai-developer
    name: Developer
    type: paid
    price: null
    period: month
    available: false
    status: coming-soon
    description: >-
      "Coming soon. Production limits, usage dashboard, batch & scheduled crawls."
      No price published.
  - id: crawl4ai-enterprise
    name: Enterprise
    type: enterprise
    price: null
    period: negotiated
    available: true
    contact_sales: true
    description: >-
      "Let's talk. Volume, dedicated regions, SLA, private archive." Priced by
      contact only.
credit_model:
  note: >-
    Usage is metered in credits and the credit cost of a page depends on the proxy
    mode requested: off = 1x, on (residential) = 5x, crawl4ai (Web-Unlocker) = 10x.
    Responses carry usage.credits_used and usage.credits_remaining.
  source: skills/reference/crawl4ai-endpoints.md
published_competitive_comparison:
  note: >-
    Crawl4AI publishes a head-to-head table on its own pricing section, recorded
    here as a provider claim, not as an API Evangelist measurement.
  rows:
    - plan: 'Crawl4AI Community (free)'
      search_per_month: 5000
      scrape_per_month: 1000
    - plan: 'Crawl4AI Supporter ($7)'
      search_per_month: 30000
      scrape_per_month: 5000
    - plan: 'Firecrawl Hobby ($16)'
      search_per_month: '~2500 (drawn from shared page credits)'
      scrape_per_month: 5000
    - plan: 'SerpApi Starter ($25)'
      search_per_month: 1000
      scrape_per_month: null
    - plan: 'ScraperAPI Hobby ($49)'
      search_per_month: null
      scrape_per_month: '~100000 credits'
self_host_option:
  price: '0.00'
  license: Apache-2.0
  description: >-
    "It's Apache-2.0. pip install crawl4ai, point it at your own boxes and proxies.
    No gate, no token." The self-hosted Docker server has no Crawl4AI-imposed
    quota at all.
terms: 'https://gate.crawl4ai.com/legal/#terms'
refunds: >-
  "Except where required by law, payments are non-refundable." Subscriptions renew
  automatically; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current period.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com